Interprofessional collaboration – a health science term from the perspective of linguistics / Interprofessionalität – ein gesundheitswissenschaftlicher Begriff aus dem Blickwinkel der Linguistik

Many hopes are pinned on the topic of „interprofessional collaboration”. However, a precise definition of the term is lacking, as has already been noted in some publications in the field of health sciences. Linguistic analyses dedicated to the concept of interprofessional collaboration are not yet available. The present analysis aims at narrowing this gap. Specifically, the terms „interprofessionality”, „interprofessional” and „interprofessional collaboration” were quantitatively recorded in texts from two linguistic corpora based on texts in German. In a second step, a qualitative analysis of the use of the terms was conducted. The linguistic analysis showed a considerable increase in the use of all three terms, a restriction to specialist medical publications, and a focus on interprofessional collaboration between physicians and nurses. The patient perspective was widely absent. Furthermore, the term exhibited a typical relation with development-focused keywords, indicating that the sharpening of the conceptual field of interprofessional collaboration is not yet complete.